Vehicle-for-hire industry frustrated by delay for new regulations

Updated 11:01 pm, Thursday, June 20, 2013

Carriage horses in San Antonio could find themselves working in higher temperatures and with shorter breaks under new rules.

Carriage horses in San Antonio could find themselves working in higher temperatures and with shorter breaks under new rules.

Photo: Abbey Oldham / San Antonio Express-News

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Peter Tillman-Young walks into the stables while his older brother, Noah Tillman-Young, both of San Antonio, washes Eli, a new carriage horse, at the Yellow Rose and HRH stables in San Antonio on Wednesday, June 19, 2013. The City Council will vote Thursday whether or not to change horse-drawn carriage regulations. less

Peter Tillman-Young walks into the stables while his older brother, Noah Tillman-Young, both of San Antonio, washes Eli, a new carriage horse, at the Yellow Rose and HRH stables in San Antonio on Wednesday, ... more

Photo: Abbey Oldham, San Antonio Express-News

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Barbara White of San Antonio, the barn manager at the Yellow Rose and HRH stables in San Antonio, brushes a horse on Wednesday, June 19, 2013. The City Council will vote Thursday whether or not to change horse-drawn carriage regulations. less

Barbara White of San Antonio, the barn manager at the Yellow Rose and HRH stables in San Antonio, brushes a horse on Wednesday, June 19, 2013. The City Council will vote Thursday whether or not to change ... more

Photo: Abbey Oldham, San Antonio Express-News

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New regulations being considered by the City Council would allow companies to work horses under hotter temperatures and with shorter breaks. San Antonio already has looser restrictions on carriage horses than many other cities, some of which are shown below.

New regulations being considered by the City Council would allow companies to work horses under hotter temperatures and with shorter breaks. San Antonio already has looser restrictions on carriage horses

Noah Tillman-Young, the head trainer at the Yellow Rose and HRH stables in San Antonio, brushes Eli, a new carriage horse. The City Council has adopted new regulations to protect the horses, but one of our readers says the horses are treated better than the ones his family used on their farm when he was growing up. less

Noah Tillman-Young, the head trainer at the Yellow Rose and HRH stables in San Antonio, brushes Eli, a new carriage horse. The City Council has adopted new regulations to protect the horses, but one of our ... more

Photo: Abbey Oldham, San Antonio Express-News

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Barbara White of San Antonio, the barn manager at the Yellow Rose and HRH stables in San Antonio, brushes a horse on Wednesday, June 19, 2013.

Barbara White of San Antonio, the barn manager at the Yellow Rose and HRH stables in San Antonio, brushes a horse on Wednesday, June 19, 2013.

Photo: Abbey Oldham, San Antonio Express-News

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Stephanie McMeans of San Antonio sits in a carriage led by Jed in downtown San Antonio on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The San Antonio City Council will vote Thursday whether or not to change regulations on carriage horses. less

Stephanie McMeans of San Antonio sits in a carriage led by Jed in downtown San Antonio on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The San Antonio City Council will vote Thursday whether or not to change regulations on carriage ... more

Photo: Abbey Oldham, San Antonio Express-News

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Stephanie McMeans of San Antonio sits in a carriage led by Jed in downtown San Antonio on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The San Antonio City Council will vote Thursday whether or not to change regulations on carriage horses. less

Stephanie McMeans of San Antonio sits in a carriage led by Jed in downtown San Antonio on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The San Antonio City Council will vote Thursday whether or not to change regulations on carriage ... more

Photo: Abbey Oldham, San Antonio Express-News

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Vehicle-for-hire industry frustrated by delay for new regulations

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San Antonio's horse carriage, limousine and taxi industries have been waiting for years for the city to update an ordinance that regulates when, where and how they operate.

They'll have to wait a little longer.

At Thursday's City Council meeting, a vote on proposed new regulations for ground transportation providers was delayed after Deputy City Manager Erik Walsh noticed that several independent taxi drivers had signed up to speak against the proposed rules.

“I was told we had significant opposition to the item from the taxicab industry,” Walsh explained about his recommendation to table the action.

The proposed regulations have been developing for almost a decade, the product of dozens of meetings between the Transportation Advisory Board and industry leaders.

They propose allowing horse-drawn carriages to roam the city more freely, limousines to stay in service longer, and taxis to charge night rates for more hours, among other things, with the aim of improving efficiency.

The changes also would have loosened working conditions for carriage horses, increasing the maximum temperature for them to work from 95 to 96 degrees and reducing their break time between rides from 10 to five minutes.

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Members of the horse carriage industry have said the temperature increase would keep carriage drivers from having to end rides abruptly when the thermostat reaches 95 degrees. The shorter break time would keep loading areas from clogging up, said Anne Van Dyke, owner of Yellow Rose Carriage Co.

Walsh and members of the horse carriage industry said they worked with veterinarians and Animal Care Services to make sure the changes wouldn't hurt the horses.

The carriage horses have been bred to work under hot conditions, and their sauntering through city streets is not taxing for them, industry workers said after the meeting.

With the City Council in recess during July, the next opportunity to vote on the changes will be in August, leaving many frustrated.

Mayor Julián Castro said he also had unanswered questions about the changes and felt it would also be unfair to ask new council members, including two sworn in Thursday, to weigh in on such an important topic without having more time to consider the issue.

Taxi drivers said the proposed changes didn't address their concerns about Yellow Cab Co.'s “monopoly” of the industry. The company owns about 560 of the 800 taxi permits in San Antonio, they said. They accused the advisory board of ignoring their complaints that Yellow Cab has oversaturated the San Antonio market with permits.

“They cordially listened to them and put them in file 13 - which is a trash can,” said Robert Gonzales, who runs a small taxi business and is a member of the advisory board.

The drivers also complained about the airport shuttle, the placement of taxi signs at the airport and a rule forcing them to accept credit cards, which come with a fee.

Transportation Advisory Board member Sherry Shaw disputes their characterization of Yellow Cab as a monopoly, pointing out that there are many taxi companies in San Antonio. The board has no jurisdiction over the operation of the airport shuttle or the signs at the airport, she said, and passing credit card fees to the customer is illegal under state law.

“Some of the issues the taxi drivers have will never, ever, ever be to their satisfaction,” Shaw said.